Hello,

I have a 1903A1 NM, s/n 1496423, with a barrel date of 12-36. It has all the NM features (polished bolt with sn, checked buttplate, sn on stock, etc). I also noticed it has a "Hatcher Hole" or gas port on the left of the receiver. Is this gas port typical for this date of manufacture or was it part of a later arsenal reconditioning?

I've heard the roughly 25,000 of the approx 28,000 NM rifles were reconditioned with this port, but not certain if the gas port was part of the original manufacturing process.

The rifle is in excellent condition, so what happened to these NM rifles after they were reconditioned? Sold to DCM? How long after manufacture as NM rifles were they sent back for reconditioning? Why would all the original parts remain?

Any help or insights would be great.

Thanks,

Scott
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